UN urged to investigate new chemical weapon claim

Updated
August 22, 2013 14:32:00

There are growing calls for an immediate United Nations inquiry into reports that hundreds of people have been killed in a possible chemical weapons attack in the Syrian capital Damascus. Images posted online show scores of bodies - including small children - laid out on the floor of a clinic, with no visible signs of injury. It comes just days after a team of UN inspectors arrived in Syria to probe previous allegations of chemical weapons strikes levelled against both sides during the 29-month conflict. It also draws into focus an earlier statement by President Barak Obama that any confirmed use of chemical weapons by either side in the Syrian conflict would cross a red line.

SCOTT BEVAN: There are growing calls for an immediate United Nations inquiry into reports that more than 1,300 people have been killed in a possible chemical weapons attack in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Images posted online, but not verified, show scores of bodies, including those of small children, laid out on the floor of a clinic with no visible signs of injury.

Syria's main opposition group has accused Assad forces of carrying out the attack - the accusation has been strongly denied by the government.

It comes just days after a team of UN inspectors arrived in Syria to probe previous allegations of chemical weapons strikes levelled against both sides during the 29-month conflict.

It also draws into focus the earlier statement by the US president Barack Obama that any confirmed use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict would cross a red line.

Barney Porter reports.

BARNEY PORTER: Videos distributed by activists show medics treating suffocating children in a clinic that seems to be overwhelmed.

(Men speaking Arabic)

More footage shows dozens of people laid out on the ground, including more children . Some of the victims are covered in white sheets.

This unidentified man was speaking in what appeared to be an emergency area of the clinic.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN (translated): The number of victims from children and others is very high. I've carried in my own hands around 50 dead children. The worst thing about what happened is the indiscriminate nature of the attack and the ignorance of people who didn't know what to do when the attack took place.

BARNEY PORTER: The authenticity of the videos can't be immediately verified. They were posted soon after a government attack on rebel forces in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

Khaled Saleh is from the opposition Syrian National Coalition. He's clear who's responsible.

KHALED SALEH: It's very obvious to us that these chemical weapons were used and were carried out using basic missiles. Only the regime has that capability, has the willingness to use them against innocent civilians.

BARNEY PORTER: The Syrian government was quick to deny any involvement in the incident.

Omran al-Zoubi is the information minister.

OMRAN AL-ZOUBI (translated): Everything that has been said is ridiculous, nae, unscientific, illogical and subjective. We mean what we are saying. There is not any use of that weapon at all. The military operation that is taking place on the ground is a successful one and our forces are making progress from all sides facing the armed groups.

BARNEY PORTER: Hamish de Bretton Gordon heads the chemical weapons consultancy SecureBio. He's has watched videos of victims of the alleged chemical attacks and has told Al Jazeera the footage would be difficult to fake.

HAMISH DE BRETTON GORDON: These people have died from not conventional weapons. There is no blood or injury around. They've died from something else. The symptoms, the convulsions that we've seen in many of these casualties and pinpoint pupils and also the rapidity of death is usually synonymous with some sort of nerve agent.

BARNEY PORTER: He also believes he knows what was used.

HAMISH BRETTON GORDON: Sarin, a nerve agent, destroys your nerves so you're main bodily functions, heart, lung et cetera stop working and that's why we see these statuesque pictures of the dead, very similar to what we saw in Halabja in 1988 where Saddam gassed the Kurds and killed 5,000 in the space of an hour.

BARNEY PORTER: Stephen Johnson from the Cranfield Forensic Institute has also watched the images.

STEPHEN JOHNSON: My first impressions are that there's a large number of people demonstrating the shaking of limbs, dilation of pupils in some cases, which would be consistent with some kind of trauma to the nervous system.

BARNEY PORTER: However, he does have some reservations.

STEPHEN JOHNSON: There are, within some of the videos examples which seem a little hyper-real, and almost as if they've been set up. Which is not to say that they are fake but it does cause some concern. Some of the people with foaming, the foam seems to be too white, too pure, and not consistent with the sort of internal injury you might expect to see.

HAMISH DE BRETTON GORDON: I think when you look at the children and the babies who are dying and dead, I'm not sure that they could be convinced to fake it. This is high level chemistry, this is highly technical activity that you can't knock this up in your back shed.

This is a deliberate event that would be, I think, very difficult to fake and you need to have the experience, the capability and the wherewithal to conduct an atrocity like this.

BARNEY PORTER: Stephen Johnson again.

STEPHEN JOHNSON: At this stage everyone wants a 'yes-no' answer to chemical attack. But it is too early to draw a conclusion just from these videos. What's definitely the case is that this scale of attack, be it conventional or chemical, would constitute a serious humanitarian crime visited on a predominantly civilian community, and so it warrants further investigation.

BARNEY PORTER: Which is exactly what the UN has decided to do. A UN team 20 experts arrived in Damascus on the weekend to investigate earlier claims of the use of chemical weapons, including the rebels' possible use of such weapons in Aleppo.

After an emergency meeting this morning, the Security Council has said it's necessary to clarify the situation.

The UN deputy secretary-general Jan Eliasson.

JAN ELIASSON: This represents no matter what, no matter what the conclusions are, a serious escalation with grave humanitarian consequences and human consequences. We very much hope that we will be able to conduct the investigation. Dr Sellstrom and his team are in place in Damascus. We hope that they will be given access to the area.

BARNEY PORTER: The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

KEVIN RUDD: The use of weapons of mass destruction in any circumstances is intolerable and unacceptable in any civilised nation.

What Australia has done is co-author a letter to the UN secretary-general requesting that inspection teams be despatched to Syria immediately to establish the facts. Firstly, about how many people have been killed in this most recent incident and secondly to establish the facts about whether chemical weapons have in fact been used.

BARNEY PORTER: However, it may not happen quickly. It took months of negotiations for the UN team to be able to get into Syria. It's not known how long it might take for them to get permission to visit this new site.